


Feathered Fiends to Friends

by CreamyCheesyGood



Series: Stranger Birds [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Cats, Enemies to Friends, Feather Plucking, Multi, Series, They're birds, billy doesnt like that, blue jays are bullies, lucas has a crush on max, mobbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 03:15:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19759468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreamyCheesyGood/pseuds/CreamyCheesyGood
Summary: The birds mob a cat that came too close to their terf. Lucas tries to woo Max, to no avail.This takes place a few weeks before the first work





	Feathered Fiends to Friends

The last time Lucas and the party were near Max, Billy nearly killed Steve and Lucas. To be fair, Billy and Max were blue jays. They were incredibly violent to other species of birds, especially when one was near their nest. Max was with the party, though. She was different. She liked Lucas even though he wasn't a Jay like the others. He wasn't even a corvidae. He was a gray catbird, which for some reason Steve didn't eat him. He was very grateful for that. 

The last time Lucas had seen Billy was when the party and Steve were discussing a game plan. Billy arrived and while the others hid themselves he and Steve were squaking angrily at each other, crests held high and bodies drawn tight as they braced themselves for a fight. When Billy saw the boys and Max, well, he was pissed. He attacked Lucas, probably because he was a catbird and not even a jay, or maybe because he had seen Lucas fluffing himself up and bobbing his head slightly and awkwardly at Max. Either way, they got him down. And Lucas didn't see him again. 

Until now.

Word travelled fast in the forest. Jays were annoyingly loud, and the blue jays especially sounded awful. So, Lucas heard pretty quickly a cat had wandered over. 

And then the mobbing began. 

Birds dived from the trees in droves, striking down at the cat with harsh screams. Lucas flashed his feathers and mewed loudly at the cat, much to Max's delight as she perched beside him.

"Do you want to mob with us?" She chirped happily.

Lucas flicked his tail aggressively at the cat as it struck back, nearly knocking one of the jays down. "No, not unless it comes over here! If it so much as comes within a yard of us, I'll take it out!" He paused and looked at her. "Wait, why aren't you mobbing? Isn't your brother down there?"

Max tilted her head and whistled. "No. I like being up here with you. And it looks like they've got it covered. Look, he's retreating." 

Sure enough, the cat was making a run for it, some jays chasing after it as it fled. Lucas lowered his feathers and softened his tweets to a more pleasant whistle.

"Yeah. You guys are pretty good at warding off predators. It's pretty cool of y'all," he said, feathers fluffing out a bit. He wondered if Max noticed the signals he put off. Did blue jays have different habits? He thought about asking Steve.

"Hey. Sinclair. What are you thinking about?"

"Oh. Uh, you," he said, fluffing his feathers more, this time in embarrassment, though he bobbed his head a bit.

"Aw. Really. What are you thinking about? Are you enamored with our big strong minds and sharp bills? Or maybe you think I'll become the predator and eat you next!"

Lucas tweeted nervously, "I know you won't eat me. I'll beat you up before you could! Besides. You like me too much to do that," he finished confidently. 

Max let out a shrill of glee and nipped his cheek. She flew away with a harsh, yet kind, squeak. Lucas sighed softly before taking off behind her.

* * *

Billy fluttered over to a branch as the mob cooled down. He huffed and lowered only slightly his perpetually raised crest. His eyes followed Max as the gray catbird followed her with a knot in his chest. He knew his father would eat him and his friend if he ever brought one of those back to the nest. He was pretty pissed she snuck around with that group of boys, but he was pretty certain Sinclair would get nowhere with her. 

The branch sank slightly as someone landed beside him shakily, and Billy's eyes snapped toward them, crest raising as he began stretching himself high.

"Woah, woah, not looking for a fight, calm down, it's okay," the other blue jay beside him squeaked, lowering himself and fanning out his feathers. 

Billy squinted. "Harrington? What the hell are you doing?" Billy did not relax.

"The cat. It got you. Your feathers look kind of bent and I thought you might want help? I...I also feel like I should apologize." Steve lowered himself further. Billy preened at the thought that at one point, he had done this for Nancy. 

"You look like you're trying to seduce me. Get up, asshole."

"Oh. Right. Just, making it loud and clear I'm, you know, submitting." Steve straightened out and lowered his crest. His feathers were still slightly fluffed, but Billy believed it may be a stylistic choice. "So," Steve continued despite Billy showing no interest, "I wanted to apologize for what it may have looked like. None of us were courting Max, I promise, except maybe Sinclair and Henderson, but I never would have let anything happen. I understand why you were pissed, and they're my kids too, so I know I would've reacted the same way...so. that's that." 

Billy stared at Harrington for a few more moments, unblinking. Steve's eyes were wide and he looked pretty, well, pretty. And maybe that was annoying. And Steve was apologizing, which was definitely annoying. It was a shitty apology that was spoken way too quick. Yet, it was the first time anyone had apologized to Billy Hargrove. It gave Billy an even bigger ego boost knowing that the guy apologizing was a person Billy had beat up to an inch of his life. So, he could let it go. Sort of.

"I don't care. Just don't be alone with her again. I'll kill you, for real this time. But. I guess we're good. Just don't expect me to do any favors for you."

"Right. No problem. But, uh, your feathers are still messed up from that swat the cat got in. Do you want me to help?"

Billy scoffed and lowered his crest a bit more. "Fine. But if you try anything, you're dead."

Steve whistled an agreement and got to work. He straightened out the feathers with Billy and plucked the crushed brown ones. Billy found his crest lowering as time went on, plucking old brown, crushed feathers together.

And so what if he helped Steve back? It was the polite thing to do, and Billy wasn't always an asshole. It didn't mean anything. Really.

And if they visited each other from time to time, keeping watch over the kids and going out for food every now and then? It was just what they did. Nothing to it. And sometimes Billy brought food over to Steve before he had even left his immaculate nest, and sometimes he fluffed his feathers more than usual around him. There was nothing odd about that, and nothing to suggest they were anything even close to friends, let alone more than. Not that anyone would suggest or even think there couldbr a more than friends thing between them. Really. Billy just sometimes wanted company.


End file.
